Connected Places Catapult is inviting applications for the fourth year of the Connected Airport Living Lab. Funded by Innovate UK, the programme is a collaborative partnership between Connected Places Catapult (the Catapult) and Glasgow Airport, through which UK-based SMEs can develop, test and demonstrate their late-stage innovative technology in a live airport environment.
By providing a structured, repeatable approach aligned to airport procurement and operational realities, the programme aims to accelerate innovation adoption and scaling across UK airports.
Connected Airport Living Lab objectives:
- Solve priority airport challenges through targeted trials
- Accelerate market readiness of innovative technologies
- Support UK-based high potential SMEs to scale
Challenges are co-developed annually with the airport partner and trials are planned and delivered within the programme run dates.
Innovators selected for the programme will receive:
- Up to £30,000 funding for a trial at the airport (delivered Oct 2026 to Jan 2027)
- Introduction to relevant key airport stakeholders and decision makers
- Access to data and evaluation support
- Access to airport facilities and support to plan the trial
- Guidance on airport procurement routes
- Tailored commercial support based on a detailed business needs assessment
The three challenges are:
- Challenge 1: Asset Performance Management
- Challenge 2: Understanding Passenger Sentiment – Live passenger feedback
- Challenge 3: Understanding Passenger Sentiment – Actionable Insights
See below for full details of each challenge.
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To be eligible, applicants must:
- be a UK-registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
- have a solution which is technical readiness level (TRL) 5 – 8. This means that the solution has, at least, been tested or demonstrated in its intended environment and, at most, has been deployed as a first-of-a-kind commercial system
- have a solution which addresses at least one of the identified challenges
- be available to actively participate in the programme activities between 1 September 2026 and 31 March 2027
- be willing to travel on occasion to Glasgow Airport
- be willing to provide digital copies of formal ID to Glasgow Airport for temporary ID passes for airport visits
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Challenge 1: Asset Performance Management
Large airport assets (such as escalators, lifts, scanners and car park barriers) are managed through a planned maintenance programme but still fail unexpectedly, causing significant impact to passenger journeys. How might we monitor these assets in order to better predict and maintain their performance so that passengers’ journeys are smooth and reliable?
Challenge 2: Understanding Passenger Sentiment – Live passenger feedback
Reliable and efficient data is imperative to support airports to prioritise their activities (either reactively or longer term) to improve passenger experience. How might we understand ‘live’ passenger sentiment at different stages of the airport journey in order to get an improved understanding of the passenger’s experience?
Challenge 3: Understanding Passenger Sentiment – Actionable Insights
How might we combine passenger sentiment and feedback data from a variety of sources (for example social media, intelligent voice recognition, formal complaints and other sources) in order to provide trend analysis and actionable insights so that the airport can proactively prioritise activities to improve passenger experience?
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13 Jul: Applications open
17 Aug: Applications close 12pm
w/c 17 Aug: Application assessments: Phase 1 – due diligence and initial scoring
w/c 24 Aug: Application assessments: Phase 2 – interviews
Sept: Kick off meeting
Sept/Oct: Trial preparation
Oct 2026 – Jan 2027: Trial delivery
27 Feb 2027: Reporting deadline
31 Mar 2027: Programme end